Berkley Bedell

Berkley Warren Bedell (5 March 1921-7 December 2019) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-IO 9) from 3 January 1975 to 3 January 1987, succeeding Wiley Mayne and preceding Fred Grandy.

Biography
Berkley Warren Bedell was born in Spirit Lake, Iowa on 5 March 1921, and he served on the Board of Education from 1957 to 1962 and owned a fishing tackle business. He was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1974, and he became known for his populist and democratic style, holding town halls and referenda to decide what actions his constituents sought him to pursue in the US Congress; he thus focused on waterway usage fees and production constraints. In 1986, he fell ill with Lyme disease from a tick bite and decided not to seek re-election, and he supported Howard Dean in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008. He died in 2019 at the age of 98.